Government’s progress on dangerous cladding a “national shame”

January 24, 2019

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Shadow secretary of state for housing, John Healey, questioned the House of Commons on the action taken by the Government on high-rise residential blocks with dangerous cladding

In the wake of 2017’s Grenfell Tower tragedy, the presence of combustible cladding on tower blocks across the UK has attracted significant scrutiny.
Minister of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Kit Malthouse, responded to the urgent question and reaffirmed government’s determination to ensure a repeat of the tragedy at Grenfell does not occur again.

Malthouse said his department has worked with fire and rescue services, local authorities and landlords to identify high rise buildings with unsafe cladding and ensured interim safety measures are in place until they are permanently remediated.

Shadow Housing Secretary, John Healey, responded on behalf of the opposition and stated that it was a “national shame” that after nineteen months since Grenfell Tower tragedy, that there were still buildings in the UK with dangerous cladding.

He went on to say that it was “shocking that the Government’s own figures show there was 437 high rise blocks with the same Grenfell style cladding and 370 are yet to have this removed and replaced.”

The Shadow Secretary claimed the Government’s progress has “simply been too slow, too weak and always under pressure from this House and from Labour.”